10 January 2023
Virgin Orbit fails to deliver on first launch from UK
...team and we’ll get up and we’ll go again.” Virgin Orbit’s previous four operational launches, which all lifted off from... never easy, so we were sorry to learn that Virgin Orbit's first horizontal orbital space launch from the UK did not go as planned...
December 2021
The rise of the UK space economy
...to develop their constellations of spacecraft, hosted payloads and provide links as required with launch system providers. Virgin Orbit is close to delivering its first horizontal launch from Newquay in Cornwall. In total, there are seven prospective...
April 2018
Transforming the launch market for small spacecraft
...to launch between 32 and 36 satellites at a time, depending on the craft’s final design. However, at the same time, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, a small vehicle in the final stages of testing, has also been contracted to provide 39 dedicated satellite...
30 October 2017
Virgin Group and Saudi Arabia announce $1 billion deal
... deal, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), would take “a significant stake in Virgin Galactic, The Spaceship Company and Virgin Orbit, alongside Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments,” according to a press release by the company...
September 2021
Near space - the air-space boundary question, astronauts and space tourism
... not be ‘astronauts’. More recently, the FAA, which regulates and licensed both the Blue Origin and Virgin Orbit flights has introduced the concept of ‘Commercial Astronaut Wings’ for crew who fly above 50 statute miles...
February 2020
Opportunity knocks for UK space industry
... Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) - an organisation I’ve worked with at Virgin Atlantic, BA and Thomas Cook - which has a real ability ...secure the chance of one of these first launches through Virgin Orbit and the RAF with the Artemis project. These are...
